Ozbourne Arkyn Hoarfrost
"Evil just ain't cool, bro." A warrior dedicated to good who cannot abide tyranny, evil, or uncool behavior - though he would argue the first two terms could be summed up with the third. He also has the most expensive hair in the Beyond. History ''"Laws are good, man, but we can't put too much faith in a system that's so easy to corrupt. Really the heart of good ain't in legislation or crowns, but in each of us." - ''Ozbourne, a little drunk. Born in a small, posh city-state with vast wealth but cursed with hostile neighbors, Ozbourne of the noble Hoarfrost clan was meant to rule his people as a benign trader of stocks and credit. The year he was born, however, the mighty and unfortunately warlike city-state of Phonsai to the north attacked with their elite Greaser-Knights. Fearing destruction, Ozbourne was exchanged as a hostage to the stronger city in exchange for their survival. So it was that the son of bankers became the son of greasers, tutored in the ways of war and taught the dances and songs which defined that proud and noble martial tradition. He took to it with style and panache, and proved a surprisingly natural fit for their lifestyle. It was only a few years later that he became something of a poster child for the Phonsai military, and used to mock his hometown. When he was of age, he officially joined the military as a Greaser-Captain, leading his own contingent of fresh recruits into battle against lesser threats affecting the countryside. Goblins, kobolds, bandits, and unlicensed musicians all learned to fear him and his inexhaustible desire for combat. His penchant for combat and noble heritage drew the attention of the Greaser upper echelon, who brought him in as an enforcer for their plans and interests within the city. He was at first performing duties in-line with his ideals - acting as a champion in ritual conflicts, training the squire Greaselets, and punishing any lawbreakers he had the fortune of catching. As he proved himself more devoted to the cause of the Greaser-Knights, he was trusted with more information concerning their ultimate goal. They had uncovered the truth of a plot by the city's government to invade Ozbourne's birthplace despite their agreement to the contrary. This, rightly, enraged the young and impressionable Ozbourne who vowed his life to the cause of overthrowing the city, and threw himself utterly into its work. When the rebellion was launched, it was short and brutal. Ozbourne took many scars fighting against the palace guards and traitorous elements of his own order. It was brutal greaser on greaser melee, and at the end of the day thousands lay dead, and the city locked in the grips of terror. It was only as Ozbourne himself cut down the king's bodyguard that he demanded his foster family answer for their crimes. He raised his sword to strike down the King, the man who had given him this life he so loved, when he learned that there was no such plans to destroy his birth city, no plans to do anything but uphold their treaty. They didn't know anything about such plans. The truth was revealed to him by the Greasers he had trusted too much - he watched as a blade from the darkness took the king's life, and an infernal devil picked up the crown. The Pit Fiend revealed its intentions - to utilize the city's military for its own gains, to summon its brothers from the lower plane, and carve out a hunk of this realm for its own purposes. Of course, Ozbourne tried to interrupt him in the middle of this devilish monologue of infernal exposition, but even with the honed skills and experiences he had obtained through weeks of conflict he was put down like a meek child. Even beaten, though, the slighted Ozbourne refused to give up, and kept attempting to destroy the Pit Fiend. When his skin was scorched and limbs taken, even when it became nothing but sadistic pleasure for the surrounding devils and fallen knights, he kept struggling against and bemoaning their treachery and underhanded tricks. But when the Pit Fiend grew bored and raised its mace to finish him - the disgraced, mutilated, and de-pompadoured knight vanished in a flash of golden light. He was remade, reforged by the power of Iomedae. The goddess' agents had been watching the conflict in the city with righteous indignation, and had paid attention to Ozbourne's struggle even in the face of despair and defeat. They remade his beaten and battered body - replaced blood with starlight, ruined sinews with gold and bones with iron. They would make him a weapon against evil, against the perversions of law perpetuated by evil, and a protector of freedom. When he awoke next, it was beneath the The City of the Lost, among the rot and ruin and sarcophagi of sleeping heroes. He found Barst moments after, grumpy and unsuitably sober and rifling through the belongings of those who hadn't yet awoken. The two became fast friends over a few drinks, despite their great differences in personality and ideals. Appearance Ozbourne is a monstrously huge man, and made even larger in the plate armor he normally wears. If the first thing people notice about him is his size, then the second would be the glimmering gold-colored pompadour proudly rising into the air before them. He stands like a pillar of good and liberty to the people around him, a banner to the lost and hopeless of the world. His eyes, once a blue, have become shimmering gold coins giving him a sort of otherworldly look, proving even more the influence of outsiders on his physiology. The scars covering his body were largely erased, as many of his limbs were reforged, and his body is a pale mirror to reflect the world. Personality Ozbourne is an incredibly cheerful, upbeat man who carries a great weight of responsibility on his back. He realizes he made a mistake trusting in hierarchy and laws alone, and has abandoned that source of safety to instead rely on the inherent good in the hearts of everyone, and the freedoms necessary to see that good flourish. He's committed to protecting the Beyond and its inhabitants, and would go through any trials or harm to ensure he doesn't fail in this duty - he would travel to the far reaches of the world to slay a dangerous beast. Despite his ideals and all-consuming desire to banish evil, he fears death greatly. He bears the scars of the Pit Fiend's mutilation mentally if not physically, and despite his belief otherwise he thinks about what happened to him often - the scars, faded, still haunt him. His confidence borders on arrogance quite often, and his strange lingo tends to put people off or have him assume he's a joke. Further contributing to that, he's a hopeless flirt, which can get him into endless heaps of trouble. Like all heroes in the Beyond, he's afflicted with his own array of horrors and personality flaws, but at his heart he is a genuine crusader for good who will not just sit down and have the bright future he envisions be crushed by tyranny, despair, and evil. Allies Barst "Pinkie" Goodmead - A dwarf hunter Ozbourne befriended moments after his awakening, the two are a good team and inseparable friends despite their apparently at odds personalities. Barst does his best to keep Ozbourne's reckless optimism and desire to fight evil from getting him killed, and Ozbourne gives the pessimistic Barst hope for a brighter future. Shagrius Hanzman - A good man with good dogs who fought alongside him during an expedition to the Headless Haunt. Ozbourne thinks him reliable in combat and as a guide. Raphtalia - A girl who loves him far, far too fiercely - he hasn't really noticed, though, and doesn't feel the same. She's a good friend, if not disgusting to behold, and he knows she wants to protect and help people as much as he does even if she's got parts of her rib sticking out. He feels responsible for converting her away from the worship of Urgathoa, seeing her as someone who he needs to save. Anastasia "Ana" Sinclair - A young girl with weird powers and weirder clothes who lives in the trash, which is strangely common among his friends. Well, above a non zero number at least. He worries about her quite deeply despite having only met her recently, wanting to do his best to help shoulder the burden she carries. This is likely due to the fact that it was by his invitation that she came to the Mistwood, and thus he is to blame for the nightmares she suffered. Enemies Devils and traitor knights are the chief among Ozbourne's hated foes, but he has nothing but contempt in his heart for all evil outsiders, tyrants, and monsters who would threaten the lives and freedoms of innocent creatures. Urgathoa In the Headless Haunt, Ozbourne and his friends discovered the Temple to Urgathoa, and from that moment he was dedicated to banishing this Dark Goddess and her worshipers from this world. Ozbourne has a special loathing for the Pallid Princess for many reasons, with some being better than others. He sees her depredations on the body, how she turns it into a cesspool of diseases and corrupts the physical beauty, as the most terrible of heresies. How can one take a smoking hot girl and turn her into a shambling corpse? It's enough to drive the big guy to tears. Outside of philosophical disagreements, his hatred for her takes on a more personal note with Raphtalia. He sees the girl's worship of Urgathoa as coerced. He wants to try and save Raphtalia from the path she's walking down even if it means changing who she is, even if it means slighting Urgathoa. It's just what heroes do. Aspirations Ozbourne currently is focused on finding the biggest and baddest monsters and killing them, and then taking trophies from their corpses to inspire everyone in the Beyond. Maybe he could found a series of hunting lodges out in the wilds to provide safe harbor to travelers, and to fill them with hope and mead. He'd also like to find some hot babes. But that's a secondary goal. Only a close second. Nobility Recently, Ozbourne has been given absolute proof of his status as a noble scion of the Hoarfrost Banking Clan - a signet ring of blue gold bearing the noble Dire Penguin carrying a golden coin, the symbol of his family. He doesn't know what to do with this information, but word spreads quickly across the City of the Lost, and already he is being treated as having more authority, already being considered among the city's pitiful nobility.